Thanks to my birthday and the US Thanksgiving holiday being in the same week this year, I have the whole week off from work. So I decided to spend yesterday at the movies watching The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I did not know this was based on a 1972 book nor did I know there was a 1983 television movie. To be honest, I didn’t know a whole lot about the movie other than it was about a Christmas pageant and it starred Pete Holmes and Judy Greer.
The six Herdman kids - Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), Ralph (Mason D. Nelligan), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Leroy (Ewan Wood), Ollie (Essek Moore), and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman) - terrorize the neighborhood. They steal, they set fires, they smoke, they bully the other kids, and much, much worse. Sadly, their parents are nowhere to be found. Hearing that they can get free snacks at church, they show up for Sunday school on the day Grace Bradley (Judy Greer), the new director of the church Christmas pageant, is handing out roles. Imogene demands she play Mary while the rest of her siblings get the other main roles. The entire town of Emmanuel is sure that this will be the worst Christmas pageant in the history of the church.
First off, yes, this is a heavily Christian movie. They go into detail about the story of Jesus’ birth and the Herdman kids all ask great questions that most Christian movies do not answer. I’m not sure that the trailers properly prepared me for just how Christian this movie is. While that is fine for me, it may not be fine for everyone.
Next up, I’ve seen some reviews saying the kid actors in this are terrible. I didn’t think they were that bad. As a matter of fact, Schneider as Imogene had me crying toward the end of the movie. I almost never cry at movies - especially Christmas movies - and I didn’t expect to cry at this one. Imogene, as a character, didn’t really need a super dramatic actress. She needed someone who could play tough yet very occasionally show a vulnerable side. And I think Schneider pulled that off.
Is this a perfect movie? No. While the movie does end on a happy-ish note, I expected the Hollywood happy ending. We did not get that and I think the movie may have been worse as a result. I also would have loved to have seen Beth (Molly Belle Wright), who is the one telling this entire story, try to actually be friends with Imogene when they started to connect. Maybe this is more of a criticism of their particular church. Those adults were the absolutely terrible kinds of Christians that hate people not like themselves and don’t reach out to those in need. They all knew these kids were unsupervised and not one of them attempted anything to make it better. I was hoping that Beth would befriend Imogene and the Bradley family would sort of take the Hardmans in as honorary family members to show them what family is. But nah, they got the play, that is all they needed.
I can see this movie becoming a sort of classic like A Christmas Story but I’m not sure it really deserves it. If you are looking for a decent “reason for the season” type of movie, this should whet your whistle. But if you are looking for a feel good comedy, it will probably let you down. Do with that what you will.
Rating: Come for Imogene, stay for Gladys.